When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the front line was not where the danger was. The danger was behind him. Men in civilian clothes would work in the fields during the day and shoot sentries at night. A supply truck would leave a village and never arrive. German soldiers were found with their throats cut and no one in the village saw anything. On July 3, 1941, Stalin went on the radio and made it official. Create partisan units. blow up bridges make conditions intolerable for the enemy wherever they go. According to the laws of war at the time, a soldier without a uniform had no protection. The Germans treated each of them as a murderer, and each village that hid one of them as an accomplice. The thing is that Berlin has already decided how it will go. In May 1941, a month before the invasion, a Barbarossa decree told German forces that they would not be prosecuted for crimes against civilians and could burn villages as collective punishment. When Stalin called for a partisan war, Hitler welcomed it. This gave him, as he said, the opportunity to "eradicate everyone who opposes us." By September, the official rate was 50 to 100 civilians shot for every German killed. In Serbia the rate was 100 for every dead German and 50 for every wounded. After an ambush near Gorenji Milanovac killed 10 Germans in October 1941, about 2,800 men and boys were shot in Kragujevac. Some were high school students who walked out of class with their teachers. The retaliatory actions were supposed to turn the population against the partisans. They did the opposite. A man whose family was shot and his house burned had nothing left to lose, so he went to the forest. The partisan movement grew each time the Germans tried to intimidate it into surrender. So both sides continued to raise the stakes. In December 1942, Keitel told German forces that they could use any means "even against women and children," and no one would be punished.

When Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, the front line was not where the danger was. The danger was behind him. Men in civilian clothes would work in the fields during the day and shoot sentries at night. A supply truck would leave a village and never arrive. German soldiers were found with their throats cut and no one in the village saw anything. On July 3, 1941, Stalin went on the radio and made it official. Create partisan units. blow up bridges make conditions intolerable for the enemy wherever they go. According to the laws of war at the time, a soldier without a uniform had no protection. The Germans treated each of them as a murderer, and each village that hid one of them as an accomplice. The thing is that Berlin has already decided how it will go. In May 1941, a month before the invasion, a Barbarossa decree told German forces that they would not be prosecuted for crimes against civilians and could burn villages as collective punishment. When Stalin called for a partisan war, Hitler welcomed it. This gave him, as he said, the opportunity to "eradicate everyone who opposes us." By September, the official rate was 50 to 100 civilians shot for every German killed. In Serbia the rate was 100 for every dead German and 50 for every wounded. After an ambush near Gorenji Milanovac killed 10 Germans in October 1941, about 2,800 men and boys were shot in Kragujevac. Some were high school students who walked out of class with their teachers. The retaliatory actions were supposed to turn the population against the partisans. They did the opposite. A man whose family was shot and his house burned had nothing left to lose, so he went to the forest. The partisan movement grew each time the Germans tried to intimidate it into surrender. So both sides continued to raise the stakes. In December 1942, Keitel told German forces that they could use any means "even against women and children," and no one would be punished.